Going (Creatively) Digital

GroupM Offers A Sobering Picture Of The Digital Advertising Ecosphere

If you want to read a sobering (if not depressing) look at the state of digital advertising, check out GroupM’s Interaction 2016 report. “Here is one of the world’s leading media agency holding companies effectively telling us that the massive and growing digital investment is largely not effective,” is the way MediaPost puts it. Featured are all of the usual suspects—among them ad blocking, fraud and viewability—ranked in importance from 1 to 6 on a country-by-country basis. They are: the integrity of the digital media supply chain; ad avoidance; the “unabated rise of the app”; e-commerce (retailers, marketplaces and “selling on the edge”); the economics of television creation and distribution; and data-driven advertising and its attendant security. Here is a link to the (96-page) GroupM report.

Better Retargeting Through Brands Sharing Their Data With Retailers

Few things are more valuable to brands than their first-party customer data, hence the hesitation many of them have when it comes to sharing that data, particularly with retailers. As InternetRetailer explains, sharing is especially effective when executing digital ad retargeting tactics. Too many digital marketers selling products through both direct and retail channels use retargeting to make a direct online sale, ignoring consumers’ proclivity for offline buying. The better approach is to seek to re-engage browsers and turn them into buyers at their point of choice by working with retail channel partners at the data level to create campaigns that really work.

Instagram Ads Video Formats To Carousel Offering

Airbnb, Macy’s and Taco Bell are among the first advertisers to avail themselves of

Instagram’s video ad formats now that they have been added to the platform’s Carousel product, which was launched last year. Advertising Age reports that advertisers will be able to add multiple videos up to 60 seconds in duration to their sponsored posts. The format launched in beta earlier this week and will be rolled out widely in mid-May. Macy’s is using the carousel to post a video, and the follow up photos are close-ups of the clothes being worn in the video.

Tumblr Resumes Direct Sales With Blessing Of Parent Yahoo

How many people does it take to sell ads on Tumblr? DIGIDAY pegs the number at 75 now that parent Yahoo has given Tumblr back its independence to pitch Madison Avenue and hired former Polyvore COO Arnie Gullov-Singh to run the newly reconstituted Tumblr sales team. Having rolled out 50 communities that advertisers can target against—including gamers, horror movie fans, fans of TV shows, moms and athletes—Tumbler is “coming into sales meetings with value that brands didn’t see from us in the past, with insights tailored to clients, which is something that’s easier to do with a dedicated sales team,” Gullov-Singh explains in a Q&A.

Short Takes…

 Lancome and Target started running “shoppable” ads on Snapchat last week within Cosmopolitan’s Discover channel—the hub of the app where media brands publish daily stories, ADWEEK reported.

After rising in February, the cost of acquiring mobile users was down in March as people download fewer apps, according to VentureBeat.

Reversing course on how it works with advertisers, Pinterest now plans to service and sell across all advertiser verticals in the U.S. market, The Wall Street Journal explains.

The Internet Advertising Bureau plans to have by the fourth quarter of 2016 a 2017 road map for its LEAN (Light, Encrypted, AdChoice supported, and Non-invasive) advertising standards in response to the rise of ad blocking, says MarketingLand.